Friends and Family (S28, E02-598)

There's a fatal flaw here: the chopped peanut shells just get into the couch, anyway.

Plot Summary
Mr. Burns' psychiatrist, just before his untimely death, chastises Monty for never even being interested in having a family.  During the psychiatrist's funeral, Mr. Burns' "eulogy" was terrible enough to force him and Smithers to flee.  As they do so, they run over Professor Frink, who was in the middle of trying out his own VR technology.  Burns finds the technology intriguing and basically takes it as Frink receives medical attention.

Later, as Burns bores himself with fantasy video games and porn, not mutually exclusive, Smithers suggests Burns takes up the suggestion of the late psychiatrist and start up a family - a virtual family anyway.  Burns holds open tryouts for such a family - minus any father figure as Burns will be filling that role himself.  Ultimately, the Simpson family, forced to try out as Homer works at the plant, is chosen.  Initially, the family sans Homer stay over to do motion capture for simple scenes, but Burns likes the simulation enough to strengthen the family's contract, including living full time in the Burns mansion - essentially leaving Homer to live by himself.

Although Homer is initially reluctant, once he realizes he can do anything he wants at home, Homer starts to have a blast.  Soon, he befriends Julia, a neighbor who lives in the house behind his.  With many similar interests, the two hit it off right away, though both are fully fine with the relationship remaining platonic.

Eventually, Burns grows tired of dealing with his virtual family not being perfect (such as Bart being a Harvard man of all the devilish things), and fires the Simpson family.  When they return home, Marge overhears Homer talking to Julia and starts to go off on him, but Julia comes in conveniently and explains herself to Marge, calming her down.  Burns runs one final program with his virtual family where he dies and goes to hell, even though the headset isn't plugged in.  The episode ends a few years later where it predicts everyone will be wearing VR headsets and making fools of themselves.

Quick Review
The only really funny parts of this episode were: the family was arguing so much that when Maggie finally talks, she gets so offended over not being noticed she decides to never talk again, and the montage of Homer enjoying his time by himself.

Nothing else about the episode was funny.

This episode combines two things I do not enjoy about the series: referencing current events from over a year ago (lucky for the writers that VR is still relevant), and boring marriage episode, which the episode sneaks in at the end because how else are they going to resolve the "Homer makes a female friend who'll never seriously appear again" plot?

The entirety of Burns' VR plot was boring, and the segments with Julia were only slightly better.  Overall, the episode, while not completely awful, is not worth a watch regardless.

Final Score: 5.8